March Madness 2009

MSU made a good run, but unfortunatly, UNC are the champs. The winner has been decided in both the "real" and "fun" brackets that I oganized.

It was a fairly close race that went down to the wire, where Emily eventually emerged as the champ...in both groups! So congrats Emily! And as promised, she has already received two thundering high fives from me...one for each group!

Feel Good Story Of The Day

Check it out...I bet you will like it:

http://sports.espn.go.com/highschool/rise/basketball/boys/news/story?id=3914375&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

NBA All Star Weekend

On Saturday, Emily and I went to downtown Phoenix to see what all the hoopla was all about. Typically, I think I would avoid such a crazy event...well, maybe not. Anyways, it actually ended up being pretty entertaining.

We started off by walking a mile from Emily's apartment down to the light rail station. You wouldn't think a mile is very far to walk, but even with it only being about 60 degrees out it got fairly warm. Now I see why people bike. But once we got to the station, the credit/debit card reader was broken; so after some rig-a-ma-roll, I finally got some cash. Buying our tickets was pretty painless after that. It was only $5 for two all day passes. (I hear the fares are probably going up soon though!) FYI...the change you get back from the ticket machines comes to you in dollar coins. So keep that in mind when using a larger bill. I now have fifteen $1 coins! Which isn't that big of a deal I suppose...just unexpected. Hopefully the card reader won't be broken next time!

Anyways, once we got on it was a quick trip to downtown; maybe five minutes. Once down there, it was totally obvious that it was worth taking the light rail, cause it was crazy downtown. Plus, parking was like $15 bucks.

The rest of the afternoon/evening consisted of walking around, people watching, and dinner at Majerle's Sports Grill. I don't normally care much for "celebrity watching", I mean, they're just people. But, being a sports fan, it was pretty cool to see some of the NBA stars and athletes out-n-about. Just to drop a few names, we saw:

• Amare Stoudemire & Nate Robinson - They were holding a press conference of some sort Outside of Stoudemire's restaurant which is across from the arena. Nate Robinson won the dunk contest later that night.
  
• Terrell Owens - a.k.a. "T.O." NFL football player.
  
• Darryl Dawkins - Older NBA player from the late 70's & 80's.
  
• Bob Elliot - Famous for Emily at least :) Haha, ok not true. Apparently I'm out of the loop, cause lots of people were getting his autograph and picture. Guess it's a U of A thing!
  
• Hubert Davis - Former NBA player. More famous for currently being an ESPN college basketball analyst/comentator.
  
• Clyde Drexler - a.k.a., Clyde "The Glide" Drexler. Played in the 80's & 90's. One of the all time greats.
  
• Dominique Wilkins - Played in the 80's & 90's. One of the all time great dunkers.
  

Jesus & Football

This is one of the better stories I've seen in awhile. I mean how awesome are these people? Jesus seemed to talk about loving people a lot; it's nice to see someone actually doing it. Most people would judge those kids, not cheer for them.

It's also nice that I came across this article on the front page of ESPN.com.

One small note...no disrespect to the author, but the last word of the story should be "Love", or better yet, "Jesus". That's exactly what those people gave them.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373

Go Cats!

Emily is happy. Arizona knocked off BYU to win it's first bowl game in ten years! Whoo hoo!! Las Vegas Bowl champs of 2008...Go Cats!

Those Who Stay Will Be Champions*

Let's hope so.  

Michigan is off to an abysmal 2-4 start, which easily could/should have been 1-5, except for a monumental collapse by Wisconsin a few weeks ago. (Wisconsin led 19-0 at the half.)  The most recent loss was the first ever to a MAC team...we went down 13-10 to Toledo. Supposedly this is our worst start since 1967.

Life doesn't get any easier, either.  We hit the road this week to play Penn State, currently undefeated and ranked #3.  I haven't lost faith yet though.  We can still knock off Sparty, the Suckeye's Buckeye's, and get to a bowl game.

Go Blue.

*Note: "Those Who Stay Will Be Champions" is Michigan's motto for football.

Just when you think you've seen it all...

One of the dumbest things I've seen in awhile...

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3560377

Unbelievable. I love the old quote from the coach though!

"...coach Marvin Lewis -- who dislikes Johnson's attention-getting stunts -- referred to the receiver as "Ocho Psycho."

I love it. "Ocho Psycho". Now that's funny!

Desert Summer & Golf

I think it's safe to say that the summer heat has officially arrived. Until about the two weeks ago, or I guess you could say June 1st, it had been pretty nice for the most part. Since living out here, I've heard many people say how the heat starts in May. Apparently not this year or last. In my opinion May is very nice for the most part; it's usually in the 90's. There were a few days around the 100 mark, but even that's not too bad. However, the last whole week, for sure, has been 100+ every day...with tomorrow's forecast at 111. Maybe it's because this is my second summer out here, so I'm more used to it, but it doesn't seem to be as hot as I remembered it. I mean don't get me wrong, it's hot, but it's not that bad really. It's not like it's so hot you can't do anything outside. You'll just sweat more. For instance, today Stantec had it's annual golf outing, and I was fine. Sweaty, but fine. I was prepared though. I had shorts, a polo shirt (it was a nice course, they had a dress code), a hat, water, and a copious amount of sun block. Now if you showed up with pants, no hat, no sun block, and no water, you'd be hurtin' for a certerin'!

I guess I feel like a lot of people blow way out of proportion how hot and "miserable" it gets here. But, maybe I'm abnormal and can adjust better than most. Like I said before, it's definitely hot and can be uncomfortable at times, but I would argue it's a set of mind. If you think it's going to be hot, expect it to be hot, and prepare for it, you'll do fine. But if you hope that it won't be hot, or ignore the fact that it will be hot, then you sir, will almost certainly end up "miserable".

Anyways...the summer heat has definitely arrived now. Golf was fun. It was a four person scramble; we shot 1 over for the day, which was pretty average compared with everyone else. However, apparently there were some ballers out there, cause the winning team came in at 14 under par. Not too bad on 18 holes.

Let The Madness Begin

In less than 24 hours Chad, Sabrina (Chad's wife), Emily, and myself will be in Anaheim, CA, at the Honda Center watching the first and second rounds. We get to see part of the West and South regions. The games are as follows:

West Region
UCLA vs. Mississippi Valley State University
BYU vs. Texas A&M

South Region
Marquette vs. Kentucky
Stanford vs. Cornell

Can't really complain about those games...especially with getting to see Stanford and UCLA!

So if you happen to be watching any of these games, be sure to keep an eye out for us! Just look for me...I'll be the guy with brown hair, a shirt, and a face :)

Steroids & Baseball

I don't get these people out there that are complaining about how "congress is wasting time and tax payer dollars on baseball". Is there something I'm missing here? The last time I checked, steroids were illegal in the United States without a doctors prescription. And seeing how MLB hasn't really done anything to stop the use of steroids (and potentially encouraging the use, or at least not discouraging the use), the government finally had to step in. Baseball has essentially turned its back on what could be described as an illegal drug ring. Except this time the drugs aren't crack, cocaine, speed, marijuana, etc., the drugs are steroids.

I have no problem with the federal government stepping in to break up ILLEGAL ACTIVITY in baseball. I don't hear many people saying it's a waste of time and money trying to break up and prevent drug smuggling from Mexico, the Caribbean, Central America, etc. This is exactly the same thing, except it involves different drugs, and it's right in our back yard.

Zidane & Ronaldinho

Post Super Bowl Conclusion

After letting the results of the Super Bowl set in for a couple of days, I've come to one conclusion...it was a giant let down (no pun intended).

Goes to show that I should have stuck to my past method of tuning in periodically, and then watching the end if it was close. This game was utterly boooorrriiiinnggggg for three quarters of the game, with the score being 7 - 3 going into the fourth. Not only was the game boring, but the commercials were completely lame too! What is going on here?!? Funny commercials used to be a guarantee. Anyways, back to my point...
What happened to the high powered Patriots? People will, and have argued, that NY's defense slowed them down, but there was something more to it. There had to be. In the fourth quarter they looked like that Patriots we saw all season long. They marched right down the field and scored a touchdown like it was no big deal. It's like the first three quarters they were just hanging out, with no sense of urgency, like it was a pickup game or something. I will never understand what they were doing for those first three quarters, it's like it was a different team.

Now yes, the fourth quarter was pretty exciting. And yes, you can argue it was great to see the underdog knock off the favorite; I'm almost always a fan of the underdog myself. However, I think this year was an exception to the underdog rule. There was a chance for perfection. More than that, a chance to make history. It's not like undefeated seasons happen all the time in the NFL, if they did then my argument would have no merit. But they don't. It's only happened once in the Super Bowl era, and that was 36 years ago. To understand how hard of a feat this is, since then, no team has even had the chance to finish unbeaten. Now as a sports fan, how can you not want to witness something like that? About the only legitimate excuses out there are if you are a DIE HARD Giants fan, or if you absolutely HATE the Patriots. I think it's fairly safe to say that not many people fall into one of those two categories.

I don't get it? Everyone is saying, "What a great win!" and "The best upset ever!". No, my friends, I must disagree. Not only the Patriots, but we as sports fans, have missed a chance to witness history. A chance that in all likelihood could possibly never happen again.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against the Giants and I'm not trying to take anything away from their championship. I take my hat off to them. But in the end the Giants were a very average team that put together a good run in the playoffs. BIG DEAL. That happens all the time. 2006 Steelers anyone? Who's gonna remember that team 50 years from now? They won the Super Bowl just two years ago and I can barely jog my memory.

The only reason this game will ever be remembered is by referencing the Patriots as the best team ever to not win the Super Bowl, which is extremely tragic.

Soccer

A word of advice...don't go and play a legitimate game of soccer after months of doing nothing. I did precisely that yesterday, and my hip flexors are as sore as sore can be.

Super Bowl

I typically don't care about the Super Bowl. I mean, I'll usually drop in to parts of it, likely sometime near the end to see who's winning, or for the sake of watching a potential good ending to a game (if it's close). But this year I think I might actually watch most of it, or at least more than usual. The Patriots have the chance to become only the second team in the Super Bowl era to go undefeated. The only other time this happened was 36 years ago in 1972 when the Miami Dolphins ran the table and finished 17-0. So I figure why not see a part of sports history? I might not see this again until I'm in my 60's...if ever. With the whole free agency set up, I think it's harder than ever for teams to consistently be good, let alone be good enough to go undefeated. In the old days, once you were on a team, that was your team. Your team was either good or bad. No jumping ship the next year to the highest bidder, and no ability to buy other free agents. Anyways...
Another drawing point is Tom Brady. He's a likable guy for the most part, and more so, he's a Michigan alum. What's not to like about that? Right before our eyes he's becoming one of the greatest QB's the NFL has ever seen. Way to represent Tom.

BCS

The BCS is ridiculous.

For those of you that don't know, BCS stands for Bowl Championship Series. It is the current system that college football uses to determine a national champion. Two-thirds of this system uses the old age tradition of voting, and one-third is a computer formula. For the most part I have no problem with this. However, instead of using the system to determine seeding in a playoff, (like how they vote for the 65 teams to play in March Madness) they use the system to only give the "top two" teams a chance for the title. Some years the "top two" can be fairly clear, or at least the #1 spot can be. But usually, and especially this year, many teams have the argument to be in the "top two". I'm sure by now you can see how many people are upset when their team is left out either because some formula doesn't favor them, or more likely, people voting don't like them.

The only legitimate way to fix this controversy is to have a playoff. College football is the ONLY sport (college, pro, or otherwise) that doesn't have a playoff system. I mean think about it...it is ridiculous to vote on who is the best team. There is absolutely zero integrity with voting on a champion. Just let the teams settle it on the field.

Or maybe we should do away with playoffs altogether. We should just vote at the end of every season on who is the best NFL, NBA, college basketball, MLB, etc. team out there. Yeah right. It's obvious that sounds ridiculous! So logically, not having a playoff for college football is ridiculous as well. If I were LSU, I could not honestly say to myself, "We are the best team in college football because we just won the 'National Championship' game that we got voted into." All LSU has proven is that they are better than OSU. What about USC or WV? They both dominated their bowl games against Big Ten and Big 12 schools. Especially WV, they creamed an Oklahoma team that people were trying to argue should have been in the N.C. game. Or what about Mizzou, Georgia, or Kansas? Sure, people are gonna argue that Kansas hasn't played enough good teams. But they finished 1-1 against two top ten teams. And people will say that Mizzou lost to OU twice, but they trounced Arkansas, who by they way, beat LSU. Sure, Georgia didn't win their conference, or even their division, but that's never stopped a team in March Madness from winning it all before has it? I could go on and on...

Almost no matter who you argue for or against...with no playoff we'll never know for sure.

FYI - There was a 17% decline in ratings for this years N.C. game. Looks like I may not be the only one losing interest in the bowl system.